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jordan lake

The director of North Carolina’s Sierra Club chapter, Molly Diggins, probably put it best:
“What Sen. Gunn has proposed is we stop cleanup efforts and indefinitely delay, seeking a magic technological solution to the problem. He was unable to provide a single example that would be a reason to believe there’s a more efficient or less expensive way to do it.”
On top of everything else, this bill might also violate federal directives to improve water quality. But this would hardly be the first time during this session that lawmakers in our General Assembly have tried running rogue. Remember that plan for a state religion that would’ve violated the First Amendment?

Karen Rindge, the executive director of WakeUP Wake County, covered what state leaders should be doing to clean up Jordan Lake and why water mixers called 'Solarbees' aren't the answer. In her column pu blished in the Raleigh News & Observer, Rindge wrote:

"State leaders should be trying to clean up polluted Jordan Lake as fast as possible. Instead, they have chosen to allow pollution to mount and to award a no-bid contract to a company for installing a product that won’t clean up our drinking water.

By Andrew Kenney — akenney@newsobserver.com
RALEIGH — Gov. Pat McCrory signed a controversial delay of the Jordan Lake clean-up effort last month, but the legislative debate’s not over yet. Two members of the N.C. House of Representatives say a $1.65 million plan to buy anti-algae technology may be designed to benefit a single company, circumventing the public bidding process.
The budget provision lays out planned spending for the water-circulating devices that some lawmakers claim will curb algae pollution in the lake. It calls for specifics -- such as “adjustable float arms with a one-inch diameter shaft and turnbuckle,” “Type 316” stainless steel, and polystyrene foam beads to absorb water – that line up in many respects with the features of the SolarBee, a water circulator made by Medora Co., headquartered in North Dakota.
In a letter written last week, which was made public Friday, Rep. Chuck McGrady, a Republican from Hendersonville, and Rep. Rick Glazier, a Democrat from Fayetteville, ask state Auditor Beth Wood to review the budget item, which could put dozens of 16-foot-wide circulators in the lake for two years.
The representatives question whether the budget item is so specific that it would eliminate some companies whose products don’t, for example, “weigh approximately 850 pounds.” That is the exact weight of Medora’s SB10000HW v18 High Wave mixer – and such detail is a warning sign that the legislation could improperly favor Medora, according to McGrady and Glazier.
“The provision reads very much like the terms of a purchase and sale contract,” the letter states. “Further, there is only one company of which we are aware that makes a technology that meets the specifications.”

The more than 300,000 people in the western Triangle who rely on Jordan Lake for their drinking water got a message from the General Assembly last week: Let them drink blame.
In this case, blame comes in the flavor of blue-green algae that is blooming in the lake because of increasing levels of nitrogen and phosphorus flowing in from areas upstream, primarily from Burlington and Greensboro.
State and local officials and citizens worked for years to develop requirements known as the Jordan Lake rules to limit upstream pollutants. Most local governments in the watershed have taken steps to comply, but some in Guilford and Alamance counties have resisted. They say the rules limit how their land can be used for residential and industrial development and require costly changes to wastewater treatment and stormwater control systems.

By Stephen T. Smith - It is fantasy thinking to pretend that Jordan Lake will somehow clean itself up if the General Assembly repeals upstream pollution controls as proposed in Senate Bill 515, which the N.C. Senate passed last week.
Jordan Lake provides drinking water to the growing cities of Cary, Apex and Morrisville, as well as to Western Wake and Chatham counties. In addition to serving as a crucial water supply, Jordan Lake is a major North Carolina asset for fish and wildlife conservation and for a wide range of recreation activities easily accessible to several million North Carolina citizens, taxpayers and voters.

On Wednesday, the NC Senate passed two bills marking serious rollbacks for environmental protections in North Carolina. With the crossover deadline rapidly approaching, the passage of these bills in the Senate means they will be eligible to be heard in the House at any time for the rest of this session.

The Associated Press - RALEIGH — The North Carolina Senate passed two major environmental rollbacks Wednesday ahead of a deadline over objections from Democratic lawmakers.
The bills would repeal rules for managing pollutants in Jordan Lake and a host of restrictions on new jetties along the coast that critics say can shift damage to neighboring properties. Bills that don't require tax changes or spending and fail to clear at least one chamber by Thursday night are essentially dead through the end of the session in 2014.